What is conhost.exe and Why Is It Running?
You might be wondering what is this process and why is it running in windows 7?
Well, we have an answer.
What Is It?
The conhost.exe process fixes a fundamental problem in the way previous versions of Windows handled console windows, which broke drag & drop in Vista.
It’s a completely legitimate executable as long as it’s running from the system32 folder, and is signed by Microsoft. Scanning your computer for viruses is never a bad idea, though.
Why Do I Need It?
There was a problem with the way the console process works on previous versions of Windows—they are all hosted under the csrss.exe (Client Server Runtime Process) service. This process runs as a system privileged account.
Checking out in Process Explorer under Windows 7 shows that the conhost.exe process is running underneath the csrss.exe process.
The conhost.exe process sitting in the middle between CSRSS and cmd.exe allows Windows 7 to fix both of the problems in previous versions of Windows not only do the scrollbars draw correctly, but you can actually drag and drop a file from Explorer straight into the command prompt
If you really want to be sure, check out the file properties for the conhost.exe executable, and you’ll see that the description says Console Window Host
If you look at the details of the process from within Process Explorer, you’ll notice that the ComSpec is set to cmd.exe, a clear indication that it’s hosting the command prompt.
You might be wondering what is this process and why is it running in windows 7?
Well, we have an answer.
What Is It?
The conhost.exe process fixes a fundamental problem in the way previous versions of Windows handled console windows, which broke drag & drop in Vista.
It’s a completely legitimate executable as long as it’s running from the system32 folder, and is signed by Microsoft. Scanning your computer for viruses is never a bad idea, though.
Why Do I Need It?
There was a problem with the way the console process works on previous versions of Windows—they are all hosted under the csrss.exe (Client Server Runtime Process) service. This process runs as a system privileged account.
Checking out in Process Explorer under Windows 7 shows that the conhost.exe process is running underneath the csrss.exe process.
The conhost.exe process sitting in the middle between CSRSS and cmd.exe allows Windows 7 to fix both of the problems in previous versions of Windows not only do the scrollbars draw correctly, but you can actually drag and drop a file from Explorer straight into the command prompt
If you really want to be sure, check out the file properties for the conhost.exe executable, and you’ll see that the description says Console Window Host
If you look at the details of the process from within Process Explorer, you’ll notice that the ComSpec is set to cmd.exe, a clear indication that it’s hosting the command prompt.
